


Don't Turn Around

by WallaceButterfly



Category: Ib (Video Game), Original Work
Genre: Alternate Reality, Gen, Horror, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-25
Updated: 2014-11-25
Packaged: 2018-02-26 22:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2669408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WallaceButterfly/pseuds/WallaceButterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Logan Kirkland's looking for his big break - after all, once the summer's over he's packing his bags, leaving his hometown and going off to college. He dreams of becoming a famous musician one day, yet before he leaves he wants to make an imprint on the town - so he asks the Gallery in town to showcase some of his old art. But what if something strange and unexplained suddenly happens when he's giving his friends a tour? Read on to find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Turn Around

If you were there for the opening of the art gallery that day, you would’ve seen a bizarrely excited teen - no, I suppose one could call him a man now - sprinting down the street and into the entrance long before the doors were actually open to the public. Although it was the norm to those who’ve lived in the city for a long time, as they’ve grown accustomed to the man. The elderly simply chuckled as they watched him pass by, watching as his deep set teal eyes glittering excitedly with delight as the girls who were coming home from school giggled and admired from afar his wild dirty blonde locks being teased and tousled by the wind.

He was a daily occurrence in these parts, considering the fact that a majority of the people in the city had lived there long enough to see him grow from a gangly little kid, to a brooding teenager and then the lively man he was now. But of course, many don’t refer to him as just ‘He’ - oh, no. Like everyone else, he had a name - and his name was Logan Kirkland. Nineteen and fresh out of high school, Logan had high hopes of becoming one of the greatest musicians and composers out there! In fact, the main reason he was making his way to the city’s art gallery was to see how his paintings - yes, despite his dreams he still dabbled in something a little extra - hit it off with the public, alongside the tracks (that he’d composed and recorded himself, obviously) they’d be playing in the background as people walked around.

As Logan entered the gallery, bringing in the damp smell of the late spring in with him, he let out a relieved sigh as he caught glance of his brother and best friend standing by the main desk reading a pamphlet together. A smile eased its way onto his features, as he walked over to them. “Hey guys,” he greeted, still a little breathless from his sprint on the way there.

Michaella or Mika, as she preferred, grinned and propped up her thick black framed glasses - which Logan couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at. “About time,” she replied in mock-exasperation, using her own form of greeting. “We’ve been waiting for like, hours on end for our oh-so punctual guide to meet us!” The blonde rolled his beryl-green eyes, before he motioned at her glasses instead of retorting. “Oh, caro mio, this is what’s in style nowadays. Shall I grab you a pamphlet so you can get on with the program?”

“Yes, because hipster glasses and beanies seriously look fashionable,” Logan tried to say with as little sarcasm as possible, which was about as successful as a zebra trying to camouflage with a pride of lions. He tried to not-so-discreetly eye the rest of her outfit -  a white blouse with a lace collar and pale pink oversized sweater alongside a black sparkly mini skirt, stockings and ankle boots - and could only think ‘So this is what fashion’s like nowadays…’  Mika let out a mock-insulted gasp, punching his arm playfully.

Now it was Sam (who insisted on “Just Samuel, please,” which usually went ignored) that took his turn to roll his eyes at the elder duo’s lively banter. “Shouldn’t we get going now? The gallery’s not going to tour itself.” He almost cracked a smile at their matching crestfallen puppy dog-looking expressions, but turned around before they could see it. “So where is the exhibit showing your paintings, Logan? It wasn’t in the pamphlet, and we didn’t really want to spoil your surprise before you came after all.”

Logan took the pamphlet from him, frowning slightly as he scanned and flipped through the pages. “Seriously? Mr. Donahue said he’d mention it in the ‘Rising Artists’ section…” He trailed off, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “... speaking of the ‘Rising Artists’ section, it’s not here. Strange, there must’ve been a misprint.”

He gave the pamphlet back to Sam, who took it back and slid in his back pocket for safekeeping. Taking a moment to think, he turned and jogged over to a nearby man in a security guard uniform, giving directions to some visitors before he directed his attention to Logan. “Hm? Well if it isn’t Loopy Lo-Lo. Need something from this ol’ man?” the guard who had ‘Stan’ adorning his name tag said with a teasing lilt, using one of the younger man’s childhood nicknames. The blonde’s ears turned a bright red, but otherwise remained unaffected by the nickname.

“Actually, yeah. You don’t happen to know if Mr. Donahue’s around, do you? He forgot to add in the ‘Rising Artists’ section in the pamphlets, so I thought I’d let him know. I mean, I can navigate around fine, but it’s the visitors I’m concerned about.” Stan frowned in response, and took a pamphlet from the main desk to take a look himself.

“... My boy, I think the pamphlet’s fine. What’s this ‘Rising Artists’ you’re talking about?” He said once he finished looking through it and had put it away. Logan stared at him in confusion, glancing back at Mika and Sam briefly in some sort of desperate plea for help before whipping his head back to face Stan.

Logan took a deep breath, attempting to keep the disbelief out of his voice as he spoke. “Remember, Stan? Mr. Donahue said he’d put my paintings with the ‘Rising Artists’ section this year? You were there, you’ve got to remember!”

Stan looked like he was trying as hard as he could to remember, he really did. “I’m sorry, kiddo… But I’ve got an old man’s memory. Why don’t you check out Mr. Donahue’s office and see if he’s there?” He slowly nodded in response. Stan smiled sincerely at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry I couldn’t help. But you’re free to go around since the crowd hasn’t come in yet, alright?”

With a brief farewell being said, Logan turned around to face Mika and Samuel once more with an evidently forced grin. “Apologies for the wait, guys. Guess there was just some problems with the pamphlets, but I can talk to Mr. Donahue about it later.”

Sam smiled, in some sort of attempt to comfort his brother. “It’s fine, since you know where to go anyway. Why don’t you lead the way? The sooner we see the paintings you worked so hard on, the better right?” A small spark seemed to glimmer in the elder sibling’s eye once more, as he nodded. Mika seemed to give the final push - quite literally - speaking in that rapid-fire way of hers for him to get a move on before she went back home.

Logan laughed, pushing Mika back playfully before he gestured for them to follow. Along the way he introduced a few famous paintings and gave some brief insight to their artists’ background, making sure the duo trailing behind weren’t snoring from boredom. Once or twice he’d point out the title of the songs that the gallery had been quietly playing, since after all he’d made them. Eventually, they made it into the part of the gallery Logan had claimed to be the ‘Rising Artists’ section. Yet for some strange reason, although there were paintings and sculptures on display, there was no sign indicating that it was indeed the right place. The trio had found it weird, but still carried on with the tour.

“Alright, so this was my first successful oil painting,” he introduced. It was a portrait, of a girl with long, wavy chestnut locks with her eyes half lidded as she looked down. The girl looked almost shy, as if she didn’t want to be painted, but the close-lipped sly smile said otherwise. “It’s called ‘Reborn’, and my inspiration was obviously Renée since after all, that’s what her name means.” Logan turned to look at their reactions - Mika seemed to be very impressed, while Sam stared with an expression of awe.

“Wow… that’s really good,” Sam commented,  rather surprised at his brother’s talent. Logan stuck his tongue out childishly, as if saying ‘I told you so!’ “What can I say? I’m a gifted man~” Mika giggled and elbowed him playfully, nodding for him to continue with the tour.

So they walked around for a little bit to get to the next painting, which was much more different than the first one. It was more vibrant, used more colours, with its abstract looking scenery as if the place was from another world. “This landscape’s called ‘Wonderland’. I kinda saw it in a dream once and well… I thought it’d look good as a painting, I guess.”

“Artist’s intuition, perhaps?” Mika said, tilting her head in different angles as she looked at the painting curiously. It was evident Logan had a bit of fun in this one - if the paint splatters that coincidentally looked like neon fruits on the trees were obvious enough. The little things, Mika noticed, the little things were always where Logan’s childish tendencies shone through.

Logan simply grinned in response, looking like he was suppressing a laugh due to some hilarious joke that needed to be told but couldn’t. Sam let out a snort, as if he could already guess what his brother was thinking. “Alright, alright. We should get to the next painting before you keel over from choking on your own laughter,” he said, to which Logan let out an affirming wheeze as he tried to regain control over himself.

“This is my last one. It’s called ‘The Lone Pianist’, and-” Logan stopped in the middle his to-be extravagant flourish as he turned to look at the painting. It was a painting of a narrow, dimly lit hallway that led to a room full of light with a silhouette of a figure sitting by the piano and playing. “Wait a sec. Something’s wrong with this picture…” Mika and Sam peeked over his shoulder, before stepping closer to inspect the painting.

“Shouldn’t there be a frame on it?” Sam quickly realized and voiced it out, to which Logan reacted by exclaiming “Eureka!” The elder brother looked around, as if the frame would’ve been put somewhere nearby, but found no trace of it. Sam tried to put in his two cents in by helping him looking around the hall, bending down by each bench to see if it was under there - which, it wasn’t.

Meanwhile as the two siblings searched around, Mika had taken it as her opportunity to lean in and get a closer look on the painting. It was a charcoal painting, all black and white, but the shadow of the figure of the piano seemed to… move. The piano the gallery’s speakers were playing strangely fit the movement of the painting - that is, if Mika wasn’t losing her mind. She blinked once, twice, thrice, before taking her (fake) glasses off and wiping the lenses. Leaning in closer, the sound seemed to emanate from the painting instead of the speakers, and the next thing she knew, she’d leaned in so close she fell in with a particularly loud yelp!

Luckily Logan and Sam were close enough to hear her cry, and had turned around just in time to see her legs pass through the painting. They met one another’s gaze, and no words needed to be said. The two of them made a run for it and leaped into the painting after her.

Then… the gilded frame of ‘The Lone Pianist’ reappeared as if it had always been there.

**Author's Note:**

> So, the summary is probably very bad. But thanks for clicking on this story nonetheless! I decided to post something on here just for the fun of it, so I hope you enjoy this story. ^-^ I was loosely inspired by the game Ib so you might seem some similarities, but otherwise the plot and characters are mine!


End file.
